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How to paint Blood Angels – Part I

UPDATE: Vallejo recently changed some of their paint names in quite a confusing way. The red I use in Step 5 is now called just ‘Red’ – not ‘Red RLM23’ as it was called before. The name ‘Red RLM23’ is now applied to a colour that used to be called ‘Scarlet’, which is brighter and more orange than the one I use. The code given in Step 5 was and is correct – 71102. Confused? Thank Vallejo for that!

Welcome to the first in a three-part tutorial on how I paint my Blood Angels. Check out Part II here where we cover detailing the model, and Part III here which gives an overview of the finishing touches.

Lots of people have asked me how I paint the red armour on my Blood Angels. I posted a tutorial on how I did my Drop Pod using colour primers (here), but I’m always trying new things and striving to improve and perfect my process. More recently I’ve been using Vallejo Model Air paints instead of primers to achieve more extreme shadows and highlights and give more contrast to the models, so I think it’s time for another tutorial…

Our subject will be a basic tactical marine.

Step 1

Prime the whole model Vallejo German Red Brown (605)

Step 2

Shadows are sprayed with Vallejo Model Air Dark Sea Blue (71087). This was experimental, replacing the black I used to use, and I think an improvement. Highlights sprayed with Vallejo Model Air White (71001).

Note: You can go back and forth with these colours and the primer until you’re happy. I also have the torso attached to the legs with Blu-Tack only so I can get to all parts easily.

Step 3

This is a new addition to the process, something that I’ve been meaning to try and it worked out pretty well. I applied Citadel Drakenhof Nightshade into cracks and crevices to exaggerate the shadows, and some extreme highlights with Vallejo Game Color Dead White (72001) to increase the contrast. You can be fairly rough here as the next layers of yellow and red will smooth and soften the effect.

UPDATE: On reflection I would say that this step makes only a negligible difference to the end result. You may want to experiment with it on characters etc, but for rank and file troops I would say you can safely skip it and move on to Step 4.

Step 4

Vallejo Model Air Medium Yellow (71002) all over – a couple of light coats until you have even coverage.

Step 5

Vallejo Model Air Red (71102) all over – again, light coats until you have even coverage.

And that’s it for the basic red armour! Because of the shading wash and brush highlights applied in Step 3, I find there is no need for the gloss varnish and black ink wash that I used to do after Step 5, making the process quicker overall.

Next I will paint the non-red areas and finally give the armour some edge highlighting. I will be back with Part II of this tutorial covering those steps soon.

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Hello!
I tried using your tutorial and the red i got in the result was great, but absolutley not the one shown on your photo. It went more towards orange rather than magenta you have shown on top. Can you help to fix me my mistake?

Are you definitely using Vallejo Model Air Red RLM23 (71.102) ? This red is quite magenta in tone which you will see if you spray directly over white. The yellow layer before this acts as a filter to achieve what I would describe as a ‘pure’ red – i.e. not too orange and not too pink.

If you’d like to email me a picture of the model in question I can take a look for you – address on the contact page.

Brilliant! Just finished my first squad up to the end of part 1. TBH, when I’d finished the yellow, I was a bit doubtful, but that red ties everything together really well. I skipped the Drakenhof step as I’ll be black washing later. My only question is the shading – any tips? Unfortunately mine looks a bit unrealistic, haven’t managed to fade it as well as you have. Onto part 2!

Hi Greg, not sure exactly what you mean. Can you email a pic? Obviously you won’t see the final result until after the gloss coat, black wash and then Lahmian Medium steps.

By the way, for the black wash I’ve been using GW Nuln Oil Gloss lately – it works just as well my own ink mix and is obviously easy to get hold of and you don’t have to worry about getting the proportions wrong. I’m going to update the blog post about it.

Also totally fine about skipping the Drakenhof. To be honest that step was an experiment when I made the tutorial and after the later steps I’m not sure it really makes enough difference to be worth it…

Hey Luther, thanks for the reply. I was referring to the pre-shading with VMA Dark Sea Blue (I used VMA Signal Blue instead) but it’s my shadow lines that look unrealistic , not the paint colours (so its my technique’s fault if anything) I may have answered my own question with. a quick YouTube search​ of “pre-shading airbrush” and there are a few vids there, basically spray with a dark colour from beneath, as opposed to trying to guess where the shadows will fall, and then Zenithal highlight with the VMA white, which will cover any errant dark spray. I’ll soldier on with this batch and see how they pan out!

I’ve already got the gloss and DR ink, and a glass dropper bottle, so I’ll stick to the original thread for now

Thanks Eric! I probably wouldn’t use a pre-shading / pre-highlighting method with Space Wolves because grey paints tend to be very opaque. This method works for Blood Angels because of the transparency of the red. I couldn’t tell you exactly which paints I’d use for Space Wolves because I’ve never painted them, but I remember Les Bursley (awesomepaintjob) did a really nice YouTube video, if that’s the kind of thing you’re looking for? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AImKoB10ans